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Yankee, Leave Home!

IT is not exactly the routine for Queen Elizabeth II to visit a theme park, but she did so in June, traveling to the miniature models of Legoland near the royal palace at Windsor to survey a tiny likeness of herself in molded plastic inspecting the equally Lilliputian guard. Neither is it quite the norm for Prime Minister Tony Blair to do sound bites for television and Web site commercials. But he did so this summer, urging Americans to visit Britain ''for great times with good friends.''

The reason for both events was a sinking feeling among Britain's tour operators that this year, after the Iraq war, SARS and a stubborn economic slowdown, visitors -- particularly Americans -- might well stay away, jeopardizing Britain's $120-billion-a-year tourism industry. As the peak summer season unfolded, it rapidly emerged that the British were not the only ones to worry.

Across Europe, from the Colosseum to the Eiffel Tower, the number of American visitors has been declining, caused in part by the dollar's weakness against the euro and the British pound, but also by a mix of factors ranging from terrorism fears to a reluctance to visit countries, most notably France, that opposed the war in Iraq.

Even on the Normandy beaches, where American veterans traditionally journey, Americans this year have been staying away, according to tour operators there. The story is similar from Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin to the Tower of London.

Nor is it just a question of numbers. Americans spent more time and money than most other tourists when they visit European cities. ''The golden age is over,'' an Italian bus driver told a tour guide, Sylvie Hogg, in Rome after ferrying American visitors around the city without receiving the kind of tips he would once have expected.

And, even though some hoteliers and tour operators say they expect the Americans to return soon, the latest decline seems to fit a dismal pattern that has dented their business for several years. In Britain, in the year 2001, a foot-and-mouth outbreak deterred visitors even before the terror attacks of Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan. Then, as the global economy continued to contract in 2002 and stock markets remained in the doldrums, President George W. Bush's focus on Iraq and the war on terrorism seemed to spread more nervousness among Americans about venturing too far.

''Whenever Bush talks about terrorism, we groan because Americans stay home,'' said Nello Rispoli, co-owner of the midrange Villa Lara hotel in Amalfi, Italy. Some causes of the slowdown originate far beyond Europe. SARS scared off many would-be travelers across the globe, and economic woes were more or less universal all year.

But for Europeans, this has been an unusual summer in other ways. Soaring temperatures broke records in England. Punishing heat waves killed thousands of people in France alone, and raging forest fires, some set by arsonists, devoured parts of southern France, Spain and Portugal.

And even though the statistics are not all in, there was ample evidence early this summer that plain old dollars and cents had contributed to a lot of tourism's woes. This year, the dollar has weakened by some 15 percent against the euro and around 10 percent against the British pound, while the pound itself is 10 to 15 percent lower against the euro, the currency used in 12 of the 15 European Union countries excluding Britain, Sweden and Denmark.

Continental Europeans, thus, found London a cheaper destination than in recent years, and in June, some 1.5 million visitors from Western Europe traveled to Britain -- a 17 percent increase over 2002 and the busiest tourism month on record, according to VisitBritain, the main tourism marketing group. But, in that same month, the number of American and Canadian visitors to Britain, 440,000, was 15 percent lower than last year, prompting increased advertising in the United States. That included the TV ad with Prime Minister Blair. Although he appears only briefly, it clearly shows his concern that Americans were staying away.

The war itself also reinforced a trend for fewer American visitors at attractions like the Tower of London. ''The war most definitely impacted, but our numbers were down for the U.S. market last year anyway,'' said Jacque Gazzard, spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces, which runs the Tower of London.

Tour operators said business might have been improving slightly later in the summer. But there was no bonanza. ''These people are mostly on coach trips or cheap charter flights,'' said Derek Eydman, a London cabdriver, gesturing to crowds of visitors as he drove past Buckingham Palace. ''The big money spenders are the Japanese and Americans, and there are not many of them at the moment.''

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Across the Channel, there was a somewhat different dynamic. As a result of France's having led European opposition to the war in Iraq, many Americans, fearing unpleasant encounters or to express disapproval, seem to have avoided the country. In April, before the war ended, the number of American visitors was down by 38 percent compared with one year earlier. But Robin Massee, a spokeswoman for the French Government Tourist Office in New York, said that improved visitor totals in July and August could mean that for all of this year, the decline in the number of American visitors may be only 10 percent.

At the Eiffel Tower, Luc Echavidre, its administrator, said the slump had persisted into early August, with the number of visitors down 11 percent compared with last year. ''We certainly have the feeling that there are less Americans,'' he said. ''There is a general drop in the number of foreign tourists, especially Americans.'' Later in the month, however, visitor numbers started improving, said Isabelle Esnous, a spokeswoman for the Eiffel Tower.

Danielle Servais, 57, a waitress at a five-star resort who was born in France but became an American citizen after moving to the United States in 1967, was visiting Paris from West Palm Beach, Fla. ''I think the real reason is the economy,'' she said, discussing why other Americans might have been put off. ''The dollar is very low and people have lost a lot of money on the stock exchange.''

But there was another uncertainty for Americans, she said. ''They are not very comfortable with coming to France this year,'' Ms. Servais said while sitting in a cafe near the Opéra in central Paris. ''They are afraid not to be welcomed, they are afraid to have a bad feeling here.''

That is only part of the story, as some French people have been quick to note.

In a letter to Le Figaro published Aug. 15, a reader, Serge Raffet, wrote that the real reason for Americans to stay away from France was that it was ''the land of disorder'' with repeated strikes affecting everything from airline flights to garbage collection. ''Those are the reasons for the Americans to go look elsewhere,'' he wrote.

There are some suggestions that ''elsewhere'' could include Italy.

''It looks like things started picking up again in July,'' said Franco Paloscia, head of the press office for the Italian Government Tourist Board. But he said that in the earlier part of the year visitors were down by around 9 percent from last year. Yet, American concerns about European hostility or insecurity may have been exaggerated.

Not one of a dozen Americans interviewed on the streets of London, Paris, Rome and Berlin said that they had encountered any hostility during their visits. ''We don't feel unsafe in Europe,'' said Susan Staup, from Orange County, Calif., as she strolled along the Unter den Linden, one of Berlin's most famous thoroughfares.

For their part, many Europeans maintained that the free-spending Americans were not easily replaced.

''There has been no one to fill the gap of the Americans,'' said Marylea van Daalen, the wife of the general manager at the five-star Hotel Adlon in Berlin. At the same time, there is some evidence that budget and backpack travelers -- usually below the age of 30 -- have been far less willing to cancel journeys to Europe.

''The majority of our guests are still from the U.S.A.,''' said Norman Kolb, manager of a hostel in Berlin call Lette'm Sleep that charges around $17 per person per night.

''I would say that 90 percent of all American guests at our hostel are between 18 and 22 years old,'' Mr. Kolb said. ''They don't seem to care much about issues like the war on Iraq, terrorism and tensions between European and the United States governments. Their main concern is where to find a cool party at night.''